AN: I don't own the Avengers (though if my fairy godmother comes through, I soon will). Please leave a review/follow/favorite.
To Guest: (hopefully you know who you are) Rory isn't sure the limit of her power, but so far she can only use it on herself. She might be able to affect other people or objects in dire situations.
The next two days were a blur of training. Stark had JARVIS automatically searching the entire internet, but so far he hadn't found anything about the Collectors or the Master, or Snitch and Copper. Steve and Bruce were combing through old newspapers, hoping for any information that hadn't made it online. Though that seemed unlikely to me, but Steve didn't seem to trust the internet.
I trained with Wanda and Romanoff, and sometimes Thor or Clint. Romanoff was trying to teach boxing. I had a lot of experience hitting people-I had grown up in a bad neighborhood of New York City, of course I could take care of myself. But Romanoff wasn't satisfied. She made me hit the punching bag until my knuckles turned red.
Wanda and Thor helped me learn to use my gravity control in combat. I shot through obstacle courses and slammed into dummies. Wanda even tried to help me affect people other then me with my gravity control, but so far it didn't look like I could do it.
Clint helped me with my specially-made grenades. Stark had built them for me-a special kind set off huge flashes of light, another fire, a couple let out a huge bang that made my ears ring for hours. There were others, too-but I probably shouldn't put them all down, just in case the Collectors ever got their hands on these papers.
We all knew why they were training me so hard. The Collectors had come for me, so they would be back and this time they would be ready. And we couldn't go after the tracker Clint planted on the helicopter. There was some sort of interference that made it short out. Which annoyed everyone. A lot.
Day three after the Snitch and Copper incident, Stark finally found something.
"What is it, what is it?" I demanded, sliding into the briefing room on my scuffed sneakers. I also had jeans and my NYC GIANTS hoodie, with my short black hair in pigtails. I was ready for some action. "The Collectors?"
"No," Stark said, tapping a few things on the screen of his phone. An article popped up on the larger screen, with a few sections highlighted. "Just telling you about the upcoming dance recital." He rolled his eyes. "Yes of course it's the Collectors, kid. Who else?"
"Just tell us what you've found." Steve said. I think he was annoyed because the internet beat his old-fashioned paper news.
"Okay, I went back about two years and found a mention of them. Several super-powered operatives were caught trying to break into the Silent Heights Penitentiary."
It was all I could do not to gasp. SHP was where my brother had been imprisoned for six years, and would be for four more. I tried to keep my face calm. I couldn't be freaking out right now.
"They were arrested, but they wouldn't tell who they were working with and who they were trying to bust out. All they would say was that the Master had promised rewards, and that they worked for the Collectors."
"So… all you found is another article about how we know nothing?" Clint asked. "Yeah, really helpful, Stark. You deserve an award."
"Shut up. Those guys are still locked up in Silent Heights. We can go ask a few questions. I mean," Stark grinned cheekily. "I am the great Tony Stark."
This time I couldn't help it. At the name Silent Heights I gave a wince. Wanda shot me a worried glance. "Are you alright?"
"I'm okay," I lied. If I went to Silent Heights, what if I saw my brother by accident? What if he saw me? What if he tried to talk to me? I was not okay. "Just not sure that's a good idea."
"It's a great idea!" Stark scoffed. "It was mine, so it must be great. Suit up, we're heading out."
I didn't really have to suit up-my suit was just normal clothes. I thought I at least deserved a bullet-proof jacket or a cool helmet or something, but no, normal clothes.
I wished Demitra was coming with us to Silent Heights. She would know right away what was wrong, and grab my hand to steer me through if I freaked out. She would calm me down and reassure me and even crack a joke to cheer me up. I hadn't seen Demitra in so long… I missed her a lot. She was a great best friend.
I met the other Avengers on the roof. "Are you ready to go?" Wanda asked. I nodded.
"I'm good." I patted my messenger bag-it was full of my grenades. The bag banged against my hip when I walked, but it looked casual so nobody suspected it was full of weapons.
We climbed into the plane and slipped into a long awkward silence. It was suffocating-I think if I hadn't piped up we would all have died from pure awkwardness. I'm pretty sure that's possible.
"What're the names of the guys we're going to see?" I asked.
Stark glanced at a scrap of paper in his metal-gloved hand. "Portal and Transfix is what they told the cops-I guess Transfix's power is that everybody stares at her?"
"Or maybe she stares at stuff." I shrugged. "She sounds weird. But seriously, we at least know their powers, right?"
"We know that Portal makes doorways, portals if you will, into adjacent rooms." JARVIS's british accent said politely over the speakers of the plane. I jumped. I sometimes forgot that JARVIS could hear us. It was almost creepy. I wondered if he had cameras, if he could see us too. "The police are not aware of Tranfix's abilities."
"So we could be walking into a trap." Bruce said, voice annoyingly calm. "Why are we doing this, again?"
"Because the Collectors came for Rory!" Wanda said, frowning at him. "We have to find out all we can about them and the Master."
"I've been thinking," Clint said suddenly from the pilot's seat. "What were Copper and Snitch's powers? They never used them."
"I think they did," Steve said, and we all stared at him. He glanced up from his book and explained. "Romanoff's gun didn't fire because the copper blasting cap disappeared, right? Well his name is Copper. He probably had some sort of control over copper. And Snitch-did you notice how she heard stuff she couldn't have? She probably had some sort of super hearing."
"Everyone from the Collectors seem to have really stupid powers so far." I frowned. "Why would all the people with weird powers work together to kidnap me? It makes no sense."
"That's what we're going to find out." Romanoff said. I tried not to see that as foreshadowing.
Silent Heights Penitentiary is a large stone building in the shape of a square with a smaller square cut out of the middle. That's the prison yard, where the prisoners go for an hour every day to get exercise. Four lookout towers were positioned about twenty yards from each of the four corners of the building, watching for any possibly escaping prisoners. The whole place gave me the creeps.
We landed on the roof, which we were in trouble for until Stark handed the security guys three hundred dollars and Steve's SHIELD badge, and they let us in. We walked down the unpleasant-smelling stone stairways and the narrow halls.
We were led through the prison to a set of stairs going further down. "These cells had to be specially made." The large guard escorting us said. He had a few gray hairs left on his bald head, a blue hat with his badge on the chest of his uniform, and a lined but alert face. "Portal's abilities let him move to adjacent rooms, so we had to make sure that his room was the only one on his level. He can't go up or down."
We walked into an elevator, and the guard, who's badge said HELLO! MY NAME IS SAL in big letters. "We don't know if Transfix can do anything like that, but better safe then sorry." Instead of an array of buttons on the wall of the elevator, there was a single keyhole. Sal stuck a key in and turned it, and the elevator moved down with a lurch.
Then the elevator doors open and we were led down another hallway to two iron doors.
Written on one was TRANSFIX and the other read PORTAL. "Which one do you want to talk to, first?" Sal asked, glancing at us.
"Transfix." Stark said right away. I think we were all hoping for a chance to figure out Transfix's power. Sal nodded and typed a pin code into the keypad built into Transfix's door. There was a beep, and the door opened.
The room inside was large and there was a glass barrier going down the middle with holes in it. A single chair sat on our side, and on the other side was a cell. There was a cot, a chair, a sink and toilet, and a desk with shelves. It actually didn't look as bad as I had pictured-a tiny cell with a metal bed and a dozen scratches on the wall marking the days.
I let the adults go in first, and then walked behind them. I tried not to worry when Sal closed the door behind us and locked it from the outside. I hid behind the adults and peaked over Wanda's shoulder to see Transfix.
Sitting at the desk on the cell side was a young to middle-aged woman in an orange jumpsuit. Her short blond hair stuck up, and there were three piercings in her left ear. She had a tattoo of a rose on her neck and a snake wrapping around her right ear. Her face was pale, and she had dark eyes. She wasn't particularly transfixing.
"Bout time." Transfix said loudly, almost making me jump. She tilted her chair back and put her feet up on the desk. "I wondered when they would send in the acting troupe. Unless you think I'm allergic to spandex, you're not very intimidating. And I won't tell anything about the Master."
"Actually, I think you will." Romanoff said. "We already know everything we need to to capture your "Master", and evidence to put him away for a very long time. If you confess to it all now, the charges against you may be reconsidered."
I had to try not to grin. Romanoff was smart-if Transfix thought we already knew everything, she wouldn't try to hide things.
"You can't arrest the Master, yo!" Transfix yelled, suddenly angry. "The Collectors are the righteous! We will harness the power of the gods and destroy those who dare stand between the Master and his rightful place as ruler of humanity!"
"Yeah, have fun with that, princess." Stark said. "You're never getting out of this cell."
"I will." Transfix snarled. "When we've collected them all. They will serve us whether they want to or not, and this world will be ours for the taking!"
"Okay," I grumbled before I could stop myself. "You're all kinds of crazy."
Transfix froze, the grin stuck on her face. Then she was scrambling over to the glass divider, pressing her hands and face against it, shouting, "The child! The child! She is here!"
"Oh, _." Clint groaned. "Not this one, too?"
"The child! The child! Let me see her!" It was me. Why did the Master's minions think I was so important? Sure I had cool powers, but I was a poor orphan from New York City. Why was I so important to them? Transfix looked like she might have a stroke. "The child! Come forward! Child!"
"Why are you searching for the child?" Wanda demanded. Great, now even Wanda was calling me the child! Thanks a lot evil minions of creepy cult leader dude. "What do you want with her?"
"I want nothing." Transfix said, still pressing against the bullet-proof glass like she would break through any minute. "The Master demands the child. The others go to the Collector's collection. The child must be brought to the Master. Whoever bring her to him will be given the greatests rewards and grandest prizes." Transfix's dark eyes widened with greed. "Come forward, child! At least let me see you!"
"Rory," Romanoff cautioned, but I stepped forward.
Transfix stared like she'd never seen a girl in a hoodie and pigtails before. "The Master… just as he said you would be…" Transfix mumbled. "Hair of midnight, eyes of storms, fears the fearless, turns the turned, fighting when she knows she'll lose, never bound to earth like you…." Transfix mumbled and rambled so that I couldn't understand the rest of her nonsense. But some of that, like the bit with the hair and the eyes, really did sound like me. How did the Master know what I looked like? Shivers ran up my spine, and I suddenly got the feeling I was being watched.
"If I'm this super-important child you're talking about," I called through the glass, and Transfix's head shot up. Her dark eyes looked shattered, frenzied. "Then will you answer my question?"
"Depends on the question." Transfix hissed.
I nodded, like that was the answer I had been hoping for. Though it wasn't.
"Okay, then answer this: why does the Master want me? What's so special about me?" I prayed that Transfix would tell me, even though I had never prayed before in my life, when I wasn't being forced by Mother Superior at the home.
"It's a secret!" Transfix cackled. She slid down the barrier, clutching her stomach and laughing. She rolled on the floor, struggling to breath for laughing. "Secret, secret, secret!" I glanced at the others. They were backing towards the door, and I did the same.
"Sal, open the door." Steve called through the door, and Sal opened it from the outside.
"No! Don't leave me! The secret!" Transfix screamed. I tried to ignore her, but you try ignoring a screaming insane super-powered criminal. It's very very hard.
We practically trampled each other to get out of the door. "She's lost it," Wanda muttered.
"That's assuming she had "it" in the first place." Stark grumbled.
"And that's debatable." Clint finished. But I couldn't get Transfix's screams out of my head as we rode the elevator back up. We had decided against talking to Portal. It would be a lot of the same stuff. And all I wanted was pizza and then to go to bed-I was scared. I admit it.
As the other Avengers climbed back into the plane, Wanda caught my arm. "Yeah?"
"This is where your brother is imprisoned, right?" She said in her heavy Russian accent. I nodded.
"Was I that obvious?"
"Maybe a little. Look, you should go see him." Wanda said. I shook my head and pulled away to climb onto the plane. "One day he'll be gone, and you'll regret that you didn't take this time." She said. "You only get once chance with brothers."
"I don't have a brother." I whispered. "He stopped being my brother a long time ago."
AN: thanks for reading! As always, please review or follow/favorite. See you next time, wonderful wonderful readers! You're all wonderful!
